XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien, alt.books.cs-lewis, rec.arts.books.childrens   
   XPost: rec.arts.sf.written   
   From: hayesmstw@hotmail.com   
      
   On Wed, 25 Jan 2006 11:40:59 -0000, "westprog"  wrote:   
      
   >   
   >"Steve Hayes"  wrote in message   
      
   >> "Animal farm" is undoubtedly allegory, but "1984" is not. It's sf, just as   
   >> much as C.S. Lewis's "Out of the silent planet" (which is not allegory   
   >either,   
   >> though Christ is mentioned in it, and is called Maleldil rather than   
   >Aslan).   
   >   
   >The reason that Maleldil and Aslan are clearly not allegories is that they   
   >are carefully set alongside and identified with Christ. Big Brother isn't   
   >set alongside Stalin because he _is_ Stalin. Whether this makes it   
   >technically an allegory, in the same way as Animal Farm, is a matter for   
   >professional critics.   
      
   It's a long time since I read it, and I don't have a copy handy, but I don't   
   remember anything to suggest that it was Stalin when I first read it. Big   
   Brother was just an archetypa dictator, and there were two others in different   
   parts of the world, going to war and making peace treaties at various times as   
   was most expedient for them. Perhaps that was an allegory of the trinity --   
   one Stalin in three persons.   
      
      
   --   
   Steve Hayes   
   Web: http://www.geocities.com/hayesstw/stevesig.htm   
        http://www.bookcrossing.com/mybookshelf/Methodius   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)